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I'd like something I could put in my AV rack and split some drives for my HR20 and others into my HTPC. Would this work by itself or are they other components / software needed to make this work?

Thanks,Max

I was wondering this as well ... The esata connection is simple given a converter... It's a pricy solution but I agree that a little extra $ for a lot of extra convienience goes a LONG way!

I was going to buy a hot-swappable solution at Micro Center but, of course, their in-store supply isn't that great. All I can say is try it and keep the reciept... but make sure you post your results so that the rest of us can copy your homework!

The NORCO DS-1220 is NOT a RAID Array, it does not have a RAID Controller within it. It uses port multipliers and needs one on the system that you connect it to. Based on that if you connect this to an HR20 you might be able to read a single drive or maybe no drives at all.

There are some RAID solutions out there with a self contained RAID Controller but they are usually pretty expensive. I've seen some for around $1000. Others have been posted here and there but I haven't heard any confirmation that they actually work with the HR20.

Also a lot of people have the Sans Digital 2 Bay RAID unit, It has been posted that if you start with a single drive then add a second drive in a RAID 0 to double the space the HR20 will reformat it to utilize the additional space.

The only way you would be able to avoid that is if you had a unit with a controller that would expand on the fly and even then the HR20 might still reformat to utilize the additional space.

Was with D* for over 10 years then switched to the dark-side a few years ago and haven't looked back. I truly enjoy the 50% savings and uninterrupted service

I am using the KingWin eSata enclosure recommended here ($22 at newegg) with a 1TB Hitachi Deskstar drive ($339 at newegg.) The Kingwin comes with an eSata cable and it works fine and fits fine, with no trimming. The enclosure is black with a blue LED that complements the HR20's LEDs. (According to the Kingwin website, its also available in silver, though I dont see that at newegg.) It has a fan to keep drive cool, yet is very quiet as is the drive itself. All in all, very pleased so far. I've had a few days, so not a long test yet. But it was truly painless. Clearly the 750GB solution would be better on a $/GB basis, but I am pleased with the total price of this for a 1TB solution., and without a higher end Raid enclosure for multiple drives.

All is working very well. In fact, and I say this very subjectively, I think that I have fewer issues of pixelation with this new drive. Not that I had a big problem before, but I might have had an instance every two hours or so. I haven't noticed it once since using the eSata - it seems improved. Perhaps the large (32MB) cache on the Hitachi drive really makes a difference.

One other note: I saw several people mentioning the Cavalry external drive. It looks to me like it uses the KingWin enclosure - it looks IDENTICAL to me.

i just went for this setup. is it just a matter of putting the drive in the enclosure, and hooking it up to the hr20? is there software involved for the drive/enclosure setup, or is it just plug and play? any help is appreciated.

i just went for this setup. is it just a matter of putting the drive in the enclosure, and hooking it up to the hr20? is there software involved for the drive/enclosure setup, or is it just plug and play? any help is appreciated.

No software - put it together, and restart the HR20 with it plugged in and powered on. Its really that simple.

Could someone please confirm whether or not this RAID enclosure would work? It has the Sil4726 chipset. At $260, with RAID 10, this seems like an enclosure I could grow into once prices come down...

Thoughts?

I don't see any link to the Enclosure you mentioned however if it uses the Sil Chipset you mentioned the chances that it will are slim. The reason being is that it uses a port multiplier within the enclosure (The Sil Chipset) and it needs card within the Host system to be able to utilize the multiplexed signal coming from the Enclosure. At the time the HR20 does not have this capability. Maybe someday one of its successors with but that is a big maybe.

Was with D* for over 10 years then switched to the dark-side a few years ago and haven't looked back. I truly enjoy the 50% savings and uninterrupted service

Now I am REALLY confused! I thought that the Sil4726 was one of the two chipsets that DID work!

I hate to double-post, but if it gets me an answer ! I am trying to do a RAID-0 (open to RAID-10 if the $ is right) with the Hitachi 1TB... so the majority of enclosures out there that everyone is in love with won't work as they are limited to 1TB or 1.5TB.

Has anyone here had any long term experience with the Sans Digital MS2UT Enclosure? I picked one up recently but thought I might have heard someone say that they have had long term issues / failures with a similar enclosure possibly due to improper cooling?

I want to make sure before I pop in 2 750's and record a ton of content on them that this is a proven option.

Was with D* for over 10 years then switched to the dark-side a few years ago and haven't looked back. I truly enjoy the 50% savings and uninterrupted service

Has anyone here had any long term experience with the Sans Digital MS2UT Enclosure? I picked one up recently but thought I might have heard someone say that they have had long term issues / failures with a similar enclosure possibly due to improper cooling?

I want to make sure before I pop in 2 750's and record a ton of content on them that this is a proven option.

I've read a lot of posts where people had cooling issues with the MS2UT... I guess you could always just upgrade the fan... It does support 2TB... Hmmm... Intrigue.

The fan on my MS2UT is already loud enough. I couldn't imagine upgrading it bigger. Anybody else notice this? I may need to turn the back of the unit to the wall. Right now it is turned sideways. Maybe that will help? It should be keeping those hard drives cool enough as fast as that fan is turning.lol

People need to know their facts on these boards before they post bad information and mislead others (however mistaken)! The MS2UT supports 2 TB of data.http://www.sansdigit...stor/ms2ut.html

Pardon me for saying so... While I greatly appreciate the help of those who know what they are talking about, all of the misinformation posted within these forums made this process WAAAAAAAAY harder than it needed to be.

People need to know their facts on these boards before they post bad information and mislead others (however mistaken)! The MS2UT supports 2 TB of data.http://www.sansdigit...stor/ms2ut.html

Pardon me for saying so... While I greatly appreciate the help of those who know what they are talking about, all of the misinformation posted within these forums made this process WAAAAAAAAY harder than it needed to be.

End of rant.

You are correct and that is what the specs say now. But a month ago when I bought mine they said 1.5TB with no larger than two 750GB hard drives. They have changed the specs so chill out a little.

This has to be posted in multiple forums as it has been discussed in a lot of different places!

I can confirm that the RS-M2TS from CoolDrives for $139 works flawlessly with the 0A35155 version of the 1TB Hitachi drive. This is, to my knowledge, the first enclosure with the Sil5744 chipset that we have tried to use.

I'm trying to connect a Seagate Pro 750 gig to my HR20-100 externally via SATA. I turned off my HR20 and then unplugged it. I then connected my Seagate to the HR20 and then turned on the Seagate. I then turned on my HR20. It started to boot up, went through the "checking satellite", then went to a fully white screen, but now seems frozen. It's not responsive to any of the buttons and has been that way for about 10 minutes. Anyone have any thoughts/suggestions?

New to this forum been reading a while to try and educate myself on the HR-20 since I plan on getting on before the new HD channels come on. I also plan on buying a seagate FA 750 for the extra storage.

Can someone tell me roughly how many hours of recording space they get with a 750 gb hd?

Thanks

I'm fairly new myself but I might be able to lend some insight to this one. I've got an HR20-100 with a 320 GB internal drive. I just noticed after watching 4 hours of HD programming and then deleting, that my space remaining went from 32% to 40%. Extrapolating, that yields about 50 hours of programming in HD.

Going to 750 GB should yield about 117 hours, all else being equal.

A 1TB external drive should give us about 156 hours.

A pair of 750's configured to 1.5 TB should hold 234 hours.

The 2TB raid array described earlier would be a whopping 312 hours of storage.

I may add some cost figures to this to decide what $/hr. figure yields the most efficient solution.

Going larger than 1TB involves the more expensive RAID enclosure, and the 1TB drives are quite a bit pricier than the 750G's.

I probably will get the Kingwin enclosure and the Hitachi 0A35155 1TB drive . This will more than triple the internal storage capacity for $328. It also allows an easy upgrade path to a 2TB system when the price of the 1TB drives permits.